Food Shows has changed the entire Food Industry

Hi my foodie friends..

So I have thought long and hard about what the next blog should be about and then as I was sitting watching a cooking show with my beautiful wife and it hit me. So this blog we will be talking about how food shows has changed the entire food industry, and how being a chef has become a valid career choice for men and women, just like doctor, lawyer and dentist ext.

Think about it (all the slightly older people hehehe) when you were still a tiny human dependant on all the larger humans around you, the people cooking your food used to be your mother or grandmother, unless we are talking “braai”. And let’s face it, the food was pretty average, most South-Africans know the saying “rys, vleis en aartappels” because that was mainly what was served in all households.

Then this magic thing happened, the technology advanced, television became something that was in every household, and with it.. well with it came the thing that has inspired many chefs world-wide, including me, to become chefs in the first place, Food Programmes!!

This amazing thing has changed the way the entire world sees food and cooking. Suddenly some of the best chefs where coming straight in to your living room and teaching you how to, very easily, cook amazing dishes. I had many chefs that I watched avidly during my teen years and this is how I figured out that I want to be a chef, I wanted to be able to do what they do every day and create dishes that will bring people together and bring them joy.

Think about chefs like Jamie Oliver, how he taught people how to cook very simple dishes and yet make them mouth–watering delicious. Gordon Ramsey, well he taught aspiring chefs that the kitchen is not an easy place to work and you will need nerves of steel, he also provided quite a lot of entertainment. Myself, well I was a massive fan of Keith Floyd. Who will ever forget the iconic saying “ If the wine is not good enough to drink, it is not good enough to cook with!”

And looking back now.. the legends have given way to the new up and coming stars, well some of them already are legends themselves.

Just look at molecular gastronomy..

Ferran Andrea started it and mastered it, and yet when you think about Molecular Gastronomy you think about Heston Blumenthal. Why.. well the young chefs will always surpass the legends that gave them the knowledge in the first place, and build on it. That is how any industry grows, by the passing on of knowledge. This is why I so love doing cooking demos, I get to pass on all the knowledge I have had the privilege to obtain thus far.

As for the current big thing in food.. well you might have guessed this, it’s foraging.

We are taking a step back, cutting out quite a few of the middle men and pesticides, and using what the earth has to offer us. There is something about ingredients that you yourself have gotten that gives cooking a whole new depth and gives new meaning to putting your blood, sweat and tears into it. The satisfaction you get from it is something out of this world.

This is why cooking shows are so amazing, you get to learn, experience and decide wether you will like it, all from the comfort of your own home. So many cooking shows, all of them teaching you different things, and you get to learn from some of the best of the best chefs.

This had a massive impact on the average persons way of cooking. Suddenly the dinners you are going to no longer consists of “rys, vleis and aartappels” or just a “braai”, you now attend dinners where people are serving delicious, innovative food and sometimes from different cuisines and cultures.

So what are you waiting for?

Get out there and cook your own masterpiece!